Canadian women continued their winning ways at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday as Maude Charron’s weightlifting gold capped off a four-medal day for Canada’s athletes.
Charron, from Rimouski, Que., finished first in the women’s 64-kilogram competition after a successful lift of 131 kilograms on her third and final clean and jerk attempt.
Charron also had the highest score in the snatch phase, lifting 105 kilograms. Her total of 236 points over the two phases was four better than silver medallist Giorgia Bordignon of Italy. Wen-Huei Chen of Taiwan finished third.
The 28-year-old lifted her hands in triumph as she climbed the podium and appeared to wipe away tears as the Canadian anthem played.
“Actually I don’t remember,” Charron said with a laugh when asked about the anthem. “I was just crying, and I didn’t realize what happened.
“I thought about my grandmother because once she told me she’d like me to sing the Canadian anthem, so I sang it – but on the podium at the Olympics.”
Charron’s gold is Canada’s second of the games after swimmer Maggie Mac Neil won the women’s 100-metre butterfly on Monday.
Currently, all eight of Canada’s medals at the Tokyo Olympics have been won by women. Women athletes also led Canada’s medal charge four years ago in Rio de Janeiro, accounting for 16 of Canada’s 22 medals.
Swimmer Kylie Masse kicked off the country’s medal run on Tuesday as she added an Olympic silver medal in the 100-metre backstroke to the country’s growing pool tally. Her silver medal was followed up with bronze-medal victories from the softball team and by judoka Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard.
The softball team’s 3-2 defeat over Mexico marked the country’s first medal in the sport, which was dropped from the Games along with baseball in 2012 and 2016.
Montreal’s Beauchemin-Pinard, meanwhile, earned Canada’s second judo medal of the games after she defeated Anriqueli Barrios of Venezuela by waza-ari in extra time to win a bronze in the women’s under-63-kilogram competition.
With two gold, three silver and three bronze after four full days of competition, Canadas moved up to eighth in the medal standings, behind Australia and ahead of France. Canada was ninth in total medals, with one less than Australia and one more than France.
Host Japan led the medal table for a second straight day with 10 gold, one more than the United States and China. The U.S. led all countries with 25 total medals, overtaking China, which had 21 after Tuesday’s competition.
It was Charron who provided Tuesday’s golden moment. The weightlifter, who had once gone to circus school and dreamed of being a gymnast, said going into the Games that her goal was to give her best performance.
However, she had already established herself as a medal contender earlier this year when she won gold at the Pan American Championships in April, breaking three records on her way.
And her recent success came without having a gym to train at due to COVID-19.
“My gym in Quebec closed so I had to take my stuff — my bar and my plates — to my dad’s garage,” she said. “I trained there for a whole year along with my dog.
“It was fine, I just picture myself there in my peaceful place and it puts me in the right mood.”
Canada’s swim team — at least its women — appeared to be continuing the success they found in the pool at the last Games in 2016, despite a COVID-19 pandemic that upended training schedules and, at times, shut pools altogether.
When the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all pools for weeks in the spring of 2020, Masse got into a harness and tethered herself to a fence so she could swim in place in her parents’ backyard pool.
Masse was forced to relocate from her home pool at the University of Toronto, where she trains under coaches Linda Kiefer and Byron MacDonald, to Toronto’s Pan Am Sports Centre last year to join a training group overseen by Ben Titley.
On Tuesday, the 25-year-old from LaSalle, Ont. led at the halfway turn with the fastest first length of her life but was caught by speeding Australian swimmer Kaylee McKeown at the wall.
Despite the difficulties she faced in the past year, Masse wasn’t making any excuses after her second-place finish.
“Everyone’s faced challenges this year,” she said. “Some more than others. I don’t want to ever use that as an excuse. I did everything I possibly could.”
McKeown’s winning time was two hundredths of a second off her world record of 57.47 seconds. Masse’s 57.72 was two hundredths back of her career-best in June’s Olympic trials.
While she said it would have been “incredible” to win gold, she was happy to grab the silver.
“I went the second-fastest time that I’ve ever gone, and I have to be happy with that,” said Masse, who tied for Olympic bronze with China’s Fu Yuanhui in Rio in 2016. “I’m proud of that in an Olympic final.”
Canada’s softball medal came 13 years after the program’s agonizing fourth-place showing at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The Canadians bounced back after a disappointing 1-0 extra-inning loss to Japan on Sunday that dashed their hopes for gold.
Four veterans from that team arrived at these Games looking for redemption — Jenn Salling, Danielle Lawrie, Lauren Regula and Kaleigh Rafter.
“It means everything,” said the 34-year-old Salling, who also announced she will retire. “This is the best team and one of the best cultures I’ve ever been a part of. Personally, this is the best gift I could have ever received.”
Canadian chef de mission Marnie McBean, on the 25th anniversary of her own rowing triple gold, made up the country’s cheering section, sitting directly behind home plate with two flags and a drum.
It was also a day of redemption for Beauchemin-Pinard, whose success came after she missed the podium in her first Olympic appearance in 2016.
She said after her victory that the defeat in Rio had made her even more determined to succeed in Tokyo.
“I knew I was capable of getting a medal today,” she said after her win.
Beauchemin-Pinard won her first three matches by ippon before losing in the semifinals by waza-ari to five-time world champion Clarisse Agbegnenou of France, who went on to win gold.
In her bronze-medal match, Beauchemin-Pinard remained focused. She forced Barrios on her back just three minutes into the sudden-death period, before pumping her fist and yelling in triumph from the mat after the winning attack.
Also on Tuesday, Toronto’s Penny Oleksiak and Sydney Pickrem of Clearwater, Fla., qualified for the 200-metre freestyle and 200-metre individual medley finals, respectively.
Toronto’s Summer McIntosh, the youngest athlete on Canada’s Olympic team at 14, placed ninth in the 200-metre freestyle semifinal to finish just outside the top eight advancing.
Divers Meaghan Benfeito and Caeli McKay just missed the podium in the 10-metre synchronized event, finishing fourth.
Canada’s women’s soccer team finished its preliminary play with a 1-1 draw with Britain. Canada will next face Brazil in the quarterfinals on Friday.
And Catharine Pendrel finished with an 18th place finish in the women’s mountain bike in her fourth and final Olympics.
The 40-year-old — and new mom — from Fredericton, N.B., finished eight minutes and one second behind gold medallist Jolanda Neff of Switzerland.
NEW YORK – Toronto Blue Jays reliever Chad Green and Canadian slugger Tyler O’Neill of the Boston Red Sox were named finalists for the Major League Baseball Players’ Association’s American League comeback player award on Monday.
Chicago White Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet was the other nominee.
New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani and Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. were named player of the year finalists.
The award winners, selected via player voting, will be named Saturday before Game 2 of the World Series.
Green, who missed most of the 2022 and ’23 seasons after undergoing Tommy John surgery, was a high-leverage option for the Blue Jays this past season and filled in at closer over the second half of the campaign.
The right-hander converted his first 16 save opportunities and finished the year with a 4-6 record, 17 saves and a 3.21 earned-run average over 53 appearances.
O’Neill, a native of Burnaby, B.C., also endured back-to-back injury-plagued seasons in ’22 and ’23.
After being traded to the Red Sox in the off-season, O’Neill set an MLB record by hitting a homer in his fifth straight Opening Day. He finished with 31 homers on the year and had an OPS of .847.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
Alabama’s Mark Sears and North Carolina‘s RJ Davis looked into the possibility of leaving for the NBA before deciding to return for another college season.
Their decisions helped their teams earn top-10 rankings in the AP Top 25 and earned both players some preseason honors, too.
Sears was a near-unanimous selection for The Associated Press preseason All-America men’s basketball team released Monday, earning all but one vote from a 55-person national media panel. Davis was right behind him, nabbing 51 votes.
They were joined by Kansas big man Hunter Dickinson, Auburn forward Johni Broome, Arizona guard Caleb Love and Duke freshman Cooper Flagg. Love and Flagg tied for the final spot, creating a six-man team that includes only the ACC, Big 12 and SEC.
Alabama twin bill
Sears was a key cog in the Crimson Tide’s first trip to the Final Four a year ago, orchestrating one of college basketball’s highest-scoring teams.
The 6-foot-1 guard was named a second-team AP All-America after averaging 21.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 4.0 assists. He was the first Division I player in 31 years to have 795 points, 150 rebounds, 145 assists and 95 three-pointers in a single season while breaking the Alabama single-season record with 26 games with at least 20 points.
Sears worked out for NBA scouts during the offseason before deciding to return to Alabama, earning the Crimson Tide a No. 2 ranking in the preseason AP Top 25.
“I saw the team that we had and I wanted to be a part of it, and bring home Alabama’s first national championship in basketball,” Sears said.
Across the state at rival Auburn, Broome made a quick decision about his future, announcing in April that he would be back for a fifth season.
The 6-10 forward was a third-team AP All-American last season after averaging 16.5 points and 8.5 rebounds while shooting nearly 55% from the floor. With an eye on an NBA future, Broome worked hard on his perimeter shooting during the offseason and his return earned Auburn a No. 11 preseason ranking.
“My main goal is a team goal, which is to win the national championship, to make it as far as I can in March Madness,” Broome said. “When a team shines, everyone shines individually.”
Along Tobacco Road
Like Sears, Davis has similar aspirations after opting to return for his fifth season at North Carolina.
The 6-foot guard was an AP All-American last season and the ACC player of the year after averaging 21.1 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists on a team that reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Davis enters this year within reach of former North Carolina big man Tyler Hansbrough’s all-time ACC scoring record.
“I know there’s more work to be done,” Davis said. “I know my jersey’s not going up until I leave. So there’s some more records to break and some more work to be done. I’m satisfied but I’m not satisfied, if that makes sense.”
Up the road at Duke, Flagg was the only underclassman on the preseason All-America team after arriving with tons of hype. The 6-9 swingman was the No. 1-rated high school recruit out of Newport, Maine and has been projected as the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA draft.
Flagg has the skills of a guard, but can also play inside and has worked hard on his perimeter shooting, giving him the potential to be one of college basketball’s most versatile players. He’s part of a stellar recruiting class that has No. 7 Duke eyeing a deep March run.
Big 12 duo
Dickinson was the biggest move in the transfer portal last spring after leaving Michigan for Kansas. The 7-2 center lived up to the billing, averaging 17.9 points and 10.9 rebounds while leading the Jayhawks back to the NCAA Tournament.
Love’s decision to return for a second season at No. 10 Arizona has ratcheted up expectations in the desert for the Big 12 rival of Kansas.
The athletic 6-4 guard had a high-scoring career at North Carolina and continued it after transferring to Arizona last season. He was the Pac-12 player of the year and a third-team All-American after averaging 18 points per game and making 92 3-pointers.
Love tested the NBA waters this summer before deciding to return.
“He’s had a very successful college career thus far,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. “He’s kind of this last generation of player that’s going to get better with this extra year, and so I just encourage him to take advantage of it.”
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CLEVELAND (AP) — Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson will miss the rest of Cleveland‘s season after rupturing his right Achilles tendon on Sunday against Cincinnati, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Monday.
Watson will soon undergo surgery, said the person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the team has not announced the results of imaging tests taken on his leg.
It’s the second significant injury in two seasons for Watson, who broke the glenoid (socket) bone in his throwing shoulder last year.
The 29-year-old Watson went down without being touched on a draw play late in the first half. His right leg buckled and Watson collapsed to the turf. TV replays showed his calf rippling, consistent with an Achilles injury.
As he laid on the ground, there was cheering by some Cleveland fans, leading to some of Watson’s teammates criticizing that behavior during the team’s fifth straight loss.
The injury is yet another twist in Watson’s divisive stay with the Browns.
Cleveland traded three first-round draft picks to Houston and signed him to a fully guaranteed $230 million in 2022. The deal came amid Watson being accused by more than two dozen women of sexual assault and harassment during massage therapy sessions. He settled civil lawsuits in all but one of those cases.
Watson was suspended by the NFL for his first 11 games with the Browns and then made just six starts last season before hurting his shoulder.
